MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla.—Georgia football lists nearly 70 people on its online staff directory ranging from high-profile coordinators to strength coaches to a performance chefs to recruiting staffers.
One title that isn’t found is that of a general manager on coach Kirby Smart’s staff.
That puts Georgia in the minority in the SEC where 12 SEC football programs list general managers, a growing position with sometimes nebulous responsibilities in the changing world of college athletics where top players can command seven figures in NIL and players come and go with the transfer portal.
“We have people that fill that role,” Smart said Tuesday May 27 at the SEC spring meetings. “It may be three, four people including myself, but we’re very clear in the roles of our staff members and what they do. They learn that throughout the recruiting process.”
Smart said recruits are introduced to people throughout the organization, but as far as a general manager what that role is seems to vary.
“If I ask every coach what their general manager does, they all do something different,” Smart said. “In the NFL, they do different than what they do at our level.”
General manager hires have made splashes in the last year, from former NFL quarterback Andrew Luck at Stanford to former NFL coach Ron Rivera at Cal to Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy at Oklahoma.
Some college football general managers have been in place for several years.
Barton Simmons, who was scouting director for the website 247Sports, was hired in 2021 to be general manager at Vanderbilt
Arkansas hired Remy Cofield this spring. He was director of scouting for the Boston Celtics, a franchise he worked for since 2013. Cofield is listed second on the school’s athletic staff directory behind athletic director Hunter Yurachek.
He works with football, men’s…
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Publish date : 2025-05-28 08:02:00
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